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City Share: Code for America Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Please join us on September 28th for City Share: Code for America featuring guest speaker Jennifer Pahlka. City Share is a conversation-based speaker series focused on sharing creative solutions to community issues. City Share provides community members an opportunity to dialogue with individuals from around the country using web-based video projection.

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and executive director of Code for America. The New York Times described Code for America as “a new nonprofit project…which aims to import the efficiency of the Web into government infrastructures” and tries “to make working in government fun and creative.”

For the past year, Code for America has connected the talents of cutting-edge web developers with the people who deliver public services in the cities of Seattle, Boston, & Philadelphia. Developers work with city officials to identify projects that can benefit from web-based solutions by promoting openness, participation, and efficiency in civic communities. Through this process, Code for America is bringing innovation to the public sector and cultivating tech-savvy citizens working to better our community.

The City of Seattle and Code for America, are working together to make it easier for civic leaders to mobilize their communities. In Boston, they are improving high school education by connecting the community. The City of Philadelphia has partnered with Code for America to help citizens get involved to support public services.

Fundamentally, it’s all about using emerging digital platforms and technologies to unleash the power (and the inherent need) for citizens and stakeholders to act smarter and more effectively together.

Prior to Pahlka’s work with Code for America, she ran the Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 events for TechWeb, in conjunction with O’Reilly Media, and co-chaired the successful Web 2.0 Expo.

Before that, Jennifer spent eight years at CMP Media where she ran the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine, and Gamasutra.com; there she also launched the Independent Games Festival and served as Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association. She is a graduate of Yale University and spent her early career in the non-profit sector.

Please join us for this enlightening presentation from 12-1 pm on Wednesday, September 28 at Createhere. City Share is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to teal@chattanoogastand.com.

***Links to a few projects of interest:
Chattanooga Data Chattarati Data Project Civic Commons CityCamp EveryBlock MindLab Open Plans

Posted by Katherine Currin in Culture in Education
MakeWork Emerging Artist Advice Monday, September 19, 2011

The MakeWork team produced a series of videos highlighting former grantees and their work. At the end of each video, we asked the grantees for advice for emerging artists in the community. Grantees Caleb Ludwick, Isaac Duncan III, Mia Bergeron, and Wendy Buckner share words of wisdom.

MakeWork Grantee Caleb Ludwick from CreateHere on Vimeo.

“My advice for emerging artists would be seek out people that can help you, network, do collaborations, and be active. I know at times we like to stay in our studios to create, but no one ever created in a vacuum. Art is a calling to share things, remember that.” Isaac Duncan III, Sculptor

“They way I would encourage a young artist in Chattanooga is to see Chattanooga as a resource, rather than a market…There it is a real danger to see Chattanooga as the people who we sell to, rather than the people who we learn from in order to sell to the rest of the world.” - Caleb Ludwick, Writer

“My advice to any emerging culinary artist would be to just go for it. Working with Chocolate and pastries is my passion. I could never see myself doing anything else. If you really want something, you have to make it happen. Like I could not find a job specific enough for me in Chattanooga, so I had to make my own.” - Wendy Buckner, Chocolate Maker

“The advice I have for emerging artists is to really look to your resources. Look to grants, to other artists, to mentors, to not just hole up in your studio and wait for things to come in your direction. I think that it is really important to stay involved in an active community like the one in Chattanooga is a great example, but I think reaching out is a really important part of the creative force when you are working alone a lot.” - Mia Bergeron, Painter

Interested in supporting MakeWork artists? A donation will be matched 2:1 from the Lyndhurst Foundation until November 1. Visit our website for more information.

Posted by Kate Creason
St. Elmo Park Build

Posted by Katherine Currin in Culture in Safety
Teal Thibaud of Stand Blogs About Carol Coletta & Launching of ArtPlace Saturday, September 17, 2011

I am not a graphic designer, architect, or artist, but I consider myself creative. Carol Coletta, director of ArtPlace, hit home during her conversation Wednesday. My heart raced and adrenaline pumped as she discussed how creative problem solving can shape a place socially, physically, and economically. Don’t get me wrong I love a room full of economists, planners, city officials, strategic thinkers, and data dudes, but a fresh side of economic development thinking alongside the arts floats my boat.

ArtPlace is a collaboration between the National Endowment for the Arts and 11 top foundations, to improve cities by accelerating creative placemaking across the US. ArtPlace believes that art, culture and creativity expressed powerfully through place can create communities full of energy, thus increasing the desire and the economic opportunity for people to thrive.

There are 34 locally initiated projects in the pipeline for ArtsPlace, investing $11.5 million into cities from San Francisco to Wilson, NC. These 34 projects have been selected to develop a new model towards helping towns and cities succeed by strategically integrating artists and arts organizations into identified local initiatives including community development, housing, local economy, and more. The ArtPlace website just launched, so please visit the site for more more projects in other cities.

Posted by Dave Walker in Economy in Culture
Newest Take Root Team Member Reports on First Citizen Forester Class Friday, September 16, 2011

Our ﬁrst Citizen Forester workshop kicked off to a great start last Saturday at the Chattanooga Arboretum and Nature Center. Nooga.com covered the story and interviewed our program manager, Michael Wurzel, about the replacement of recently lost trees from severe weather. The next two classes are this Saturday, the 17th, at Rock City, and next Saturday the 24th, at the Bethlehem Center. Visit Take Root to see all dates and locations, every Saturday through October, and sign up!

Nooga.com Captures First Citizen Forester Class

Take Root acquired a new team member this week, me! Allie OʼConnell here, happy to be home in Tennessee after a year of adventure and travel on the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. I spent the past year on a project that grew from my roots in Southeast Tennessee, kayaking creeks and rivers in several countries. I looked at river-oriented communities as well as local communities living and working in those dynamic landscapes. I was also interested in womenʼs roles and presence in creekboating subculture. I traveled to Costa Rica, New Zealand, Chile, and ﬁnally Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I spent my last four months juxtaposing the search for community and artful landscape to an urban setting and recovering from a game-changing shoulder injury.

I feel so fortunate to have had the time to explore my passions and connect with mountainous waterways and wonderful people in the countries I visited. Iʼm excited to be working with Take Root Chattanooga to enhance the sense of place, community, and natural beauty of our very own slice of the pie.

Posted by Dave Walker in Environment